War of the Roses (continued)

It was a bit windy and with more wind forecast for tonight, I thought that I should put some support in place for the roses. While I was tying this one to a stake, I noticed some small round orange objects which I thought were possibly aphids that I hadn’t come across before. However, on closer inspection it turned out to be some soft squishy stuff (a very scientific description). Then suddenly, the green stem beside the “stuff” began to move and turned out to be a fat green caterpillar trying to disguise itself as a rose stem. Further reflection led me to the conclusion that the soft orange squishy stuff was caterpillar excrement, the colour being affected by the colour of the rose that it had recently eaten. Although the caterpillar was very handsome, it had to be swiftly relocated to the other end of the garden, perhaps to become a meal for one of our many blackbirds.
Much of the rest of the day was taken up with packing Brenda, the camper van, ready to escape island life on Monday for a week.